King Cobra
The king cobra (Ophiophagus hannah) is the world's longest venomous snake, with a length up to 5.6 m (18.5 ft). This species, which preys chiefly on other snakes, is found predominantly in forests from India through Southeast Asia to the Philippines and Indonesia. Despite the word "cobra" in its name, this snake is not a member of Naja ("true cobras") but belongs to its own genus. King cobras, like other snakes, receive chemical information ("smell") via their forked tongues, which pick up scent particles and transfer them to a special sensory receptor (Jacobson's organ) located in the roof of its mouth. When the scent of a meal is detected, the snake flicks its tongue to gauge the prey's location (the twin forks of the tongue acting in stereo); it also uses its keen eyesight (king cobras are able to detect moving prey almost 100 m feet away), intelligence and sensitivity to earth-borne vibration to track its prey. Following envenomation, the king cobra will begin to swallow its struggling prey while its toxins begin the digestion of its victim. King cobras, like all snakes, have flexible jaws. The jaw bones are connected by pliable ligaments, enabling the lower jaw bones to move independently, enabling the King cobra to swallow its prey whole. The expansion of the jaw enables the snake to swallow prey much larger than its head. King cobras are able to hunt at all times of day, although it is rarely seen at night, leading most herpetologists to classify it as a diurnal species. Although the king cobra usually avoids confrontation with humans, it can be aggressive if provoked. If threatened, it rears up the anterior portion of its body when extending the neck, showing the fangs and hissing loudly. It can be easily irritated by closely approaching objects or sudden movements. The snake strikes rapidly and the attack range can be as far as 2 meters. It is also known to advance to the enemy with a certain distance due to its far strike range where people can easily misjudge the safe zone. The king cobra can deliver multiple bites in a single attack but adults are known to bite and hold on. In spite of being a highly dangerous snake, it prefers to escape first unless it is cornered or provoked. Since this species is secretive and tends to inhabit less-populated forested regions and dense jungle, it is rarely encountered. If a king cobra encounters a natural predator, such as the mongoose, which has resistance to the neurotoxins,[12] the snake generally tries to flee. If unable to do so, it forms the distinctive cobra hood and emits a hiss, sometimes with feigned closed-mouth strikes. These efforts usually prove to be very effective, especially since it is more dangerous than other mongoose prey, as well as being much too large for the small mammal to kill with ease. The king cobra is unusual among snakes in that the female king cobra is a very dedicated parent. She makes a nest for her eggs, scraping up leaves and other debris into a mound in which to deposit them, and remains in the nest until the young hatch. A female usually deposits 20 to 40 eggs into the mound, which acts as an incubator. She stays with the eggs and guards the mound tenaciously, rearing up into a threat display if any large animal gets too close, for roughly 60 to 90 days.ppjsajsjshshhzzjjzhzyu Inside the mound the eggs are incubated at a steady 28 °C (82 °F). When the eggs start to hatch, instinct causes the female to leave the nest and find prey to eat so she does not eat her young. The baby king cobras, with an average length of 45 to 55 centimeters (18 to 22 in), have venom which is as potent as that of the adults. They may be brightly marked but these colours often fade as they mature. They are alert and nervous, being highly aggressive if disturbed. The King Cobra carrys 20 tea spoons of venom enough to kill 20 people in under 20 minutes. It is the seconed most poisonus snake on the planet its venom can kill a full grown elephant with a single bite. Battle against the Nile Monitor A king cobra that escaped from an exotic wildlife park slinks silently through the undergrowth on the trail of another snake in Africa. Nearby a nile monitor is resting by the side of the river, basking in the afternoon sun. The snake slithers down to the side of the river and sips up some water before carrying on its search for prey. It spots the nile monitor and decides that it is a much more nutritious prey than another snake and raises itself up into the air, until it is mere centimeters away from the sleeping lizard. Suddenly a crashing sounds from the bushes and the nile monitor's eyes flick open and it comes face to face with the cobra. It leaps back, just about managing to dodge the lightning fast strike of the cobra. It jumps forward and digs its claws into the cobra's soft underbelly, slamming them both into the ground. The cobra wraps its coils around the monitor and squeezes it until it releases its grip on the snake's body. It then repeatedly drives its fangs into the monitor's torso but its thick skin coupled by the weakness of the strikes fail to penetrate the monitor's skin. The monitor lunges forward and grabs the snake by the hood, ripping out a large chunk. It then grabs the cobra by the neck and shakes it about, stunning the snake and giving the monitor enough time to rip off it's head. The monitor swallows the head and looks over the body of the snake. It stores it in a tree before returning to his sunbathing spot and going into a deep sleep once again. Winner Nile Monitor Experts Opinion wait was a KING cobra venomous The nile monitor's more versatility won him the day. As he could attack with both his claws and teeth he had the advantage over the cobra and his thick skin prevented the cobra from doing any real damage. Category:Animals Category:Asian Animals Category:Venomous animals Category:Vertebrates Category:Snakes Category:Reptiles Category:Carnivores